“How often is it a phantom woman who draws the man from the way he meant to go? So was man created, to hunger for the ideal that is above himself, until one day there is magic in the air, and the eyes of a girl rest upon him. He does not know that it is he himself who crowned her, and if the girl is as pure as he, their love is the one form of idolatry that is not quite ignoble. It is the joining of two souls on their way to God. But if the woman be bad, the test of the man is when he wakens from his dream. The nobler his ideal, the further will he have been hurried down the wrong way, for those who only run after little things will not go far. His love may now sink into passion, perhaps only to stain its wings and rise again, perhaps to drown.”

— J. M. Barrie

Source: The Little Minister (1891), Ch. 1 : The Love-Light

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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J. M. Barrie 49

Scottish writer 1860–1937

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J. M. Barrie 49

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